Bombshell email reveals Google's shocking plan to block Australians
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We all need reliable sources of information that we can trust to keep us up to date with what’s going on in the world.
Services like Google provide us with timely and accurate information, so blocking one of the biggest sources of news and information is frightening and frustrating.
Several emails have surfaced that seem to reveal a shocking truth—that Google had once planned to block Aussies from its services.
One particular email came to the fore amid an ongoing civil antitrust suit filed by the US Department of Justice against the tech giant, which stands accused of running a monopoly on certain digital advertisement technologies.
The email, sent by Google product manager Bryan Mao, was discussing a planned shutdown early in December 2020 following a deal with Samsung.
'Don't discuss [redacted] explicitly with Samsung prior to the AU shut down,' Mr Mao wrote.
‘There's a confidential, Need to Know project called [redacted] that may affect Samsung.’
'In short, due to a new law in Australia, Search features may be disabled starting [3 December] across Australia.’
‘This includes Discover and most/all Search and Assistant functionality. If this goes through, it would obviously have a major impact across Samsung devices in AU.'
‘The shutdown isn't definitely going to happen, but we are planning for it all the same. This obviously isn't our ideal way to start out the new relationship with Samsung.'
The documents said that Samsung would be ‘immediately’ notified of the shutdown once it happened, but not before.
Mumbrella reported that Google had even designed a '404 page not found’ (an error message when a page cannot be accessed) in preparation for the shutdown, with a message that said, 'Search isn’t available in Australia right now. Due to a new law, Google Search isn't available, but we hope to be back soon.’
The proposed shutdown was a response to the News Media Bargaining Code—which became law in March 2021—that tackled the huge power of Google and social media platform Facebook by forcing them to pay media companies for news content.
In February 2021, Facebook temporarily blocked all news content, also taking down pages for charities, emergency services agencies offering COVID-19 information, domestic violence shelters and groups helping to find missing persons.
Phrases like 'Delete Facebook', 'Boycott Zuckerberg' and 'Facebook We Need To Talk' began trending on other social media platforms in the wake of the ban.
The news ban was lifted shortly after when a compromise was reached between Facebook and the Australian government on the code.
In other news, Google informed its users that it would delete any account that has not been used for two or more years. The tech giant said in its memo that it wants to protect users' private information and prevent unauthorised access to their accounts even if they’re no longer using its service.
The deletions will take place on December 1.
Are you using Google as your search engine? What are your thoughts about the proposed shutdown back in 2020? Let us know in the comments below!
Services like Google provide us with timely and accurate information, so blocking one of the biggest sources of news and information is frightening and frustrating.
Several emails have surfaced that seem to reveal a shocking truth—that Google had once planned to block Aussies from its services.
One particular email came to the fore amid an ongoing civil antitrust suit filed by the US Department of Justice against the tech giant, which stands accused of running a monopoly on certain digital advertisement technologies.
The email, sent by Google product manager Bryan Mao, was discussing a planned shutdown early in December 2020 following a deal with Samsung.
Bryan Mao responded to several emails regarding Google’s shutdown in Australia. Credit: Unsplash
'Don't discuss [redacted] explicitly with Samsung prior to the AU shut down,' Mr Mao wrote.
‘There's a confidential, Need to Know project called [redacted] that may affect Samsung.’
'In short, due to a new law in Australia, Search features may be disabled starting [3 December] across Australia.’
‘This includes Discover and most/all Search and Assistant functionality. If this goes through, it would obviously have a major impact across Samsung devices in AU.'
‘The shutdown isn't definitely going to happen, but we are planning for it all the same. This obviously isn't our ideal way to start out the new relationship with Samsung.'
The documents said that Samsung would be ‘immediately’ notified of the shutdown once it happened, but not before.
Mumbrella reported that Google had even designed a '404 page not found’ (an error message when a page cannot be accessed) in preparation for the shutdown, with a message that said, 'Search isn’t available in Australia right now. Due to a new law, Google Search isn't available, but we hope to be back soon.’
The proposed shutdown was a response to the News Media Bargaining Code—which became law in March 2021—that tackled the huge power of Google and social media platform Facebook by forcing them to pay media companies for news content.
In February 2021, Facebook temporarily blocked all news content, also taking down pages for charities, emergency services agencies offering COVID-19 information, domestic violence shelters and groups helping to find missing persons.
Phrases like 'Delete Facebook', 'Boycott Zuckerberg' and 'Facebook We Need To Talk' began trending on other social media platforms in the wake of the ban.
The news ban was lifted shortly after when a compromise was reached between Facebook and the Australian government on the code.
In other news, Google informed its users that it would delete any account that has not been used for two or more years. The tech giant said in its memo that it wants to protect users' private information and prevent unauthorised access to their accounts even if they’re no longer using its service.
The deletions will take place on December 1.
Are you using Google as your search engine? What are your thoughts about the proposed shutdown back in 2020? Let us know in the comments below!
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